6
Rights of The Employees Employee Retirement Investment Securities Act of 1974 (ERISA) –Federal statute that protects employee pensions and other benefits –Overrules almost all state laws –Enforced by the Department of Labor *Notable Rules: States that employers have a fiduciary obligation to act in the best interest of employees and their pensions. *Violations: Enron, Arthur Anderson, Enron executives, etc. breached there fiduciary duties to inform employees that Enron stock was a bad investment.

7
Rights of Employees –Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act (WARN) Applies to companies with 100+ employees laying off 50+ employees within a 30 day period Employer must give employee 60 days notice of termination Employees are entitled to $500 for every day they are not notified, for up to $30,000. –Enron laid off over 4,000 the day they went bankrupt. Although Enron is protected by the employment-at- will doctrine, they failed to give employees sufficient notice of termination, thus violating the WARN Act.

9
Conclusion In conclusion, the Enron bankruptcy has left employees with very few legal options. –The WARN act gives them some compensation for their termination. –As unsecured creditors, it is doubtful that they will reclaim their losses from the bankruptcy. –Most employees are relying upon ERISA laws to collect their lost pension funds (by way of class action lawsuit). –Because of the Enron collapse, new legislation (although controversial) is currently underway that will better protect employee retirement plans.